Tony Award nominated composer Eddie Perfect and renowned musical theatre star Lyndon Watts lead the cast of Dean Bryant’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s brilliant satirical operetta Candide, when it makes its Sydney premiere in the Joan Sutherland Theatre on Thursday 20 February 2025.
Star of the stage and screen, and composer of the Broadway smash hit Beetlejuice The Musical, Eddie Perfect will play the roles of both Pangloss and Voltaire, the latter of which narrates the adventures of the title character performed by Australian musical theatre royalty, Hamilton star Lyndon Watts.
Fast-paced and funny, award-winning director Dean Bryant’s burlesque-style staging is set after a climate apocalypse, with renaissance costumes by Dann Barber, lighting by Matt Scott and choreography by Freya List forming an accomplished all-Australian creative team.
Euan Fistrovic Doidge will make his OA debut as Maximilian and Eddie Muliaumaseali’i will have his first Sydney Opera House performance as Cacambo, after a record number of 14 performances in the OA’s National Tour spanning the past 25 years.
Musical theatre cross-over star Annie Aitkin will perform as Cunegonde, ahead of her taking to the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour stage as Sarah Brown in Guys & Dolls.
One of Australia’s foremost choral conductors, Brett Weymark, will guide the OA Orchestra through the Victorian Opera production of Leonard Bernstein’s vibrant score, featuring the orchestral favourite overture, soprano showpiece Glitter and Be Gay and touching choral Make Our Garden Grow finale.
Based on Voltaire’s famous novella of the same name, Candide is a philosophical satire following an optimist’s journey through a series of adventures that open his eyes to the reality of the world around him.
Candide
Joan Sutherland Theatre – Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney
Season: 20 February – 14 March 2025
Information and Bookings: www.opera.org.au
Image: The Cast of Candide (Victorian Opera, Palais Theatre, 2024) – photo by Charlie Kinross